Still Alive
by Hyrde
Summary: Modern Day Robin Hood AU: For years, Dean Ambrose, wanted thief and outlaw, and his band of merry men have fought against the corruption and greed of mayor John Cena and the Sheriff Kane. Now Cena is trying to introduce a new and dangerous drug that will rid the city of its 'filth'. Can Dean Ambrose stop them before it is too late?
1. Chapter 1

Still Alive

**Rated T for violence and language. Just a warning, some of the characters will get a bit mouthy so if it's not your cup of tea just skip it.**

The night was clear and dark. No chance of rain tonight. A sliver of the crescent moon hung low in the nighttime sky. It was a perfect night for a just crime.

A slight wind tousled Dean's hair as he crouched on the edge of a twenty-story building and gazed at his target through a pair of night binoculars. His target several buildings away was hidden in a supposedly secure vault on the seventh floor of one of the most guarded towers in the whole city.

Piece of cake, thought Dean wryly to himself. Having seen what he needed to see, Dean stowed the binoculars away in his pack, adjusted his hood, and set his watch. Now Dean just had to be patient and wait for the guard change, which took place, according to his insider source, at a quarter to midnight.

Dean quietly breathed in the fresh and chilly air. His trained eyes were always on alert for any sudden and unexpected movements, constantly sweeping and surveying his surroundings. He checked his weapons again for about the fifth time that hour. There was no room for error on this job. Finding everything in order, Dean shifted from his crouched position to more of a kneeling one and tapped his right hand on his left shoulder as his fingers drummed lightly on his collarbone, his only sign that he was slightly nervous.

The waiting was always the most nerve-racking part. Once it was show time, Dean knew he would execute the plan perfectly and felt confident about his abilities to improvise if the plan went awry. He had done jobs like these numerous times before. But no matter how long he had been doing this, Dean could never quite get rid of all his anxiety that built up in him right before a job.

Dean's only consolation was that he was alone this time. For some people that would not have been a very consoling reality but Dean who cared deeply about the men under his command was relieved that none of them would be accompanying him tonight on this dangerous excursion. Dean had reconciled himself to the fact that he probably would be dead before he reached the age of thirty, but for the rest of his men he hoped that one day all of their efforts would make a difference and that they would be able to spend the rest of their lives in peace, stability and happiness. That's why Dean did what he did.

Dean looked down at his watch as the face lit up signaling to him that it was a quarter to midnight. Time to get to work, thought Dean giddily. Standing up on the edge of the building, Dean took a second to stretch and warm up his muscles. Feeling his body coming alive, Dean took off on a slight run along the edge of the building and built up his momentum as he came closer to the right corner of the east side of the building.

Launching himself in the air, Dean jumped about five feet from the building he had been on to the nearby tower crane. Dean landed easily on the construction crane and keeping his momentum ran along the top of the horizontal part of the crane able to maintain perfect balance. When he got to the end of the crane, he dropped down ten feet to the roof of the next building and went from a graceful landing into a neat roll.

Springing to his feet, Dean ran to the edge of that building and paused for a second, as he made sure that no one had noticed him. Hearing no alarms going off, or dogs barking or men shouting, Dean figured it was safe to assume that he was clear.

Dean then tic tacked off a lower wall up to a higher one and pulled himself up in one, clean movement. Just as Dean predicted, the parking garage for C Tower was empty. Making sure to stay out of sight of the security cameras, Dean made his way to the third floor of the parking garage to the service door that led directly onto the seventh floor.

Sliding his electronic key in the scanner, Dean let out a breath when it worked like a charm. He had been about 99% sure that it would work, but there was always that 1% chance that it wouldn't. He closed the door as quietly as he could behind him and headed off down the long hallway. The plans for the seventh floor had shown that there were no security cameras and because of the guard change, no one was on the floor.

It's almost too easy, thought Dean as he slid a second electronic key by an innocent looking door that to anyone else would have looked like it was a broom closet. Hissing, the door slid open to reveal a crude looking elevator. This would be the tricky part.

Dean knew from researching the building that the floor of the elevator was sensitive to weight and that it was only authorized to carry three passengers who had a very specific weight. If Dean walked in and didn't match any of the three weights, the elevator would stop working and the cable would detach and make the elevator free fall seven stories to the ground with Dean inside. Thankfully for Dean, it was only the floor that was sensitive but the rest of the elevator was fine.

Using the thin railing that ran about waist height along the side of the elevator, Dean climbed into it. The elevator shut the door behind him but didn't move. It wouldn't move unless it registered the weight of the passenger, but that was fine Dean didn't need it to move. After all this was an elevator that went to the holding cells and he didn't need to save anyone from there at least not tonight.

Balancing on the railing, Dean stood up and pushed aside the top hatch that served as an emergency or service exit from the elevator. In one motion, he hoisted himself through the opening in the top of the elevator and now found himself in the elevator shaft.

Dean glanced at his watch to check the time. Perfect, right on schedule. The outlaw gave a tug on the cables that he was planning on using to climb about twenty feet to the vent that led straight to the vault. The cables seemed sturdy so he wasted no time and immediately began climbing hand over hand using his legs as well to propel him up the shaft.

In no time, he reached the particular vent that he needed and swung himself easily into it. Dean crept silently along the vent until he came to the grate that led directly to the vault.

Easing the grate up ever so carefully, Dean slowly lowered himself to the floor and immediately began looking for the plans. According to another source, all of the information that he needed was on a thumb drive.

Dean began sifting through the files in the many cabinets. He was beginning to get worried on how long it would take when he stumbled across a file entitled, "Armageddon".

He peeked inside the file and smiled when he spotted a thumb drive inside of the manila envelope. Dean quickly got out his iPad from his bag and plugged the drive into it in order to check and make sure that his suspicions were correct.

After a minute of looking through the files, he smiled again in satisfaction. He had found it. He quickly stowed the iPad and the thumb drive securely into his pack and made his way back the way he had came.

Dean had no trouble getting out of the building and he was beginning to think that he would run into nobody tonight when as he was walking out of the parking garage he heard someone say, "Stop!" behind him.

Nope, thought Dean as he immediately broke into a run and jumped from the parking garage to the lower wall that he had used earlier to climb up

"Stop! Stop or I'll shoot!" warned the voice now considerably much farther away.

Good luck with that, thought Dean amusedly to himself as he ran along several roofs, jumped easily to a flag pole and slid down it fireman style. He heard gunshots behind him but it didn't concern him, he knew he was out of range. Alarms sounded in the distance, but Dean was already out of the danger zone. Chuckling to himself, Dean blended into the night and began to make his way back to base. It was like taking candy from a baby.

* * *

><p>"Fuck!" Mayor John Cena shouted as he threw a vase at the wall of his office, which shattered into a thousand pieces. Mayor Cena had just been informed of the latest breach in security at the C Tower.<p>

Sheriff Kane winced slightly at the mayor's reaction. He really hated this part of his job.

"How is it that you've let this happen again?!" yelled the mayor as he punched his desk for emphasis. "Is this Dean Ambrose a ghost? Can he walk through walls? Is he a fucking god? Why is it so hard for you to keep one man out of my business?"

"He's not just one man…" began the sheriff. He thought Cena wasn't being fair here. His few informants had at least been able to gather that this Dean Ambrose had a whole underground network of people working for him. They called themselves the 'Merry Men'.

"Excuses!" the sheriff ducked as a sizable picture from the wall was torn off and thrown at his head. "All I hear are excuses! Why do I surround myself with incompetent jackasses who can't even find one man? A man who continually waltzes into our buildings, my place of business, and apparently just takes whatever the hell he fucking wants!" said Cena as he spat into Sheriff Kane's face.

Taking a deep breath, the sheriff wiped the spittle from his face. This wasn't looking so good. He hadn't even gotten to the worst part of the news yet.

"I mean you still can't tell me what he even looks like! For all we know, Dean Ambrose, might not even be a man!" finished the mayor as he glared at the sheriff in disgust. "Well, go on, spit it out! What did he take?"

"The 'Armageddon' file."

John Cena blinked. He turned around and looked out the window of his office, which provided an excellent view of the city and clasped his hands behind his back. After a few moments he let out a slow, deep laugh.

The sheriff gulped nervously. That was not a good sign.

Mayor Cena slowly turned around and fixed Kane with a murderous look. "You have…one minute," said Cena really slowly holding up one finger, "…to give me…a solution…to this problem. Otherwise, I will find myself another sheriff."

Blood pounded in the sheriff's ears as he wracked his brain for something, anything to present to his boss as a viable solution. After about half a minute, he thought of something. Granted it was a shot in the dark but at this point Kane had nothing left to lose. "What about the kid? He's been dying to prove himself!"

The mayor, fortunately, didn't scoff at his idea outright but instead nodded for him to continue.

"I mean yeah the kid is young but he's hungry! The undercover work he did for us a couple of months ago helped us to gain leverage over the Helmsley gang. Perhaps if we had him infiltrate 'the Merry Men' and find out the identity of Dean Ambrose we could finally bring him down."

John Cena nodded. "I like it. It's good. It better work though," declared the mayor pointing a threatening finger at Sheriff Kane, "because if it doesn't…I will no longer have need of you and your services. Now get out of my office."

Kane nodded his understanding and practically ran from the room. He had a lot of work cut out for him.

As the sheriff scurried from his office, the mayor sat down and leaned back in his chair trying to quell his anger. It was never good to be angry while doing business and he had a meeting shortly. Mayor Cena sighed as he rubbed his temples. Dean Ambrose had been haunting him for years and frankly he was at the end of his rope. This man, symbol, rumor…whoever he was; needed to be put down for good.

* * *

><p>Everyone in the room whooped and cheered. It was tradition among the Merry Men to celebrate a job well done with beer, food and good company. Guys patted Dean on the back as he passed them, shouting out greetings and praise to their fearless leader. Dean smiled wide as he made his rounds around the room trying to acknowledge everyone, answering questions about his recent exploit and making sure that everyone was alright themselves.<p>

The hour was getting late and since an outlaw's job is never done. Dean decided it was time for a little speech, which usually concluded the end of the festivities.

Dean sprang onto a wooden table that was situated in the middle of the large room and almost immediately the entire room grew silent. That was the kind of respect that Dean Ambrose was shown by his men.

After a couple moments of complete silence, Dean spread his arms out wide, beer in hand and stated, "They can't touch me!"

That statement earned a laugh as the crowd of men gazed at their charismatic leader in adoration.

"Yeah, that's right. Our beloved mayor, John Cena, is probably getting his panties all in a twist at the mere thought of a piece of 'filth' like me running around his prized C Tower," said Dean sarcastically as he grinned as a chorus of boos at the mention of the mayor's name greeted him.

"Yep…that's why we do what we do," said Dean simply as everyone nodded their heads in agreement. "We stand up for the people of this city that have been slaves to a system that has treated them like dirt for years," exclaimed Dean riling up the crowd. "Corrupt officials like Cena think they own the world. They seem to think that they are gods in their own right. Well to that load of bullshit, I say FUCK THAT and FUCK THEM!" shouted Dean as the merry men loudly voiced their approval of Dean's words.

Dean waited for the crowd to die down some before he continued. "Now it has come to my attention recently that our asshole of a mayor is cooking up a new plan. And trust me, it may be hard to believe, but this new 'plan' of his surpasses all of the despicable and unspeakable acts that he has committed so far," said Dean matter of factly. "Some of you know a little bit about this already and all of you will be informed in the coming days, but what I can definitely say for sure right now is that war is coming," said Dean growing very serious.

"War is upon us gentlemen. We got a fight coming our way and I don't know about you but I can't wait to meet it and punch it in the face!" declared Dean as the crowd roared its acquiescence.

"So…get some rest…you're gonna need it," grinned Dean as he looked around the room at his men and raised his glass up high in a toast, "We're still alive!"

"STILL ALIVE!" shouted the rest of the room as they finished up the evening with their usual toast.

Dean drained the last bit of beer from his glass and jumped down from the table. Setting his glass down, he nodded to two of his most trusted men: Little Rome and Randal Scarlett and gestured to them to follow him to the back room.

Once they closed the door behind them, Dean's bravado disappeared and he sighed as he slumped down in a chair at the table. Dean ran his fingers through his hair as he closed his eyes for a minute. He was dead tired but there was still so much he needed to discuss tonight with his men. So many lives were at stake. Sleep would have to wait a little bit longer.

"Nice speech," said Little Rome as he joined Dean at the table. He said nothing about the fact that Dean looked like he was about to keel over. He knew from experience that Dean would just protest. The man was as stubborn as they come.

"So how are they planning on smuggling in the drugs?" asked Randy who as always got straight to the point.

"Take a look at this," said Dean as he handed his iPad to Randy, which had the thumb drive already inserted into it.

Randy took it from Dean. His eyebrows furrowed as he concentrated on skimming the many files. After about ten minutes, Randy's expression grew dark and he raised his eyes to meet Dean's. "Am I reading this right?" he growled as he passed the device to Little Rome.

"I'm afraid you are," said Dean as he rubbed his eyes, "there will be multiple points in which this new drug will be smuggled into the city, which will prove difficult for us to contain."

"Difficult but not impossible," stated Little Rome.

"That's what I'm hoping for at least," said Dean, "what worries me even more is that the files seem to indicate that they've already started introducing the drug to the population. But the thing is I haven't heard anything about this. Have you guys?" questioned Dean.

"Not a word," said Randy as Little Rome shook his head as well.

Dean sighed deeply, "There will be chaos if this drug is released. Once you have a taste, it's manufactured so that the person will want nothing but that drug. They won't crave food, drink, or sleep. All they will want is another taste of that drug until it literally kills them."

"That is sick," stated Little Rome as he shook his head at the very thought.

"Which is why we need to stop the drug from being introduced. This could easily kill half of the population in the city. Especially if they sneak it into hospitals and start forcibly injecting people with it," said Dean.

"We will," said Little Rome with certainty, "we always do, don't we Dean?"

"Yes, we need to," agreed Dean, "but…we've never faced anything like this before, Rome."

"But we will and we will prevail," stated Roman as he patted Dean comfortingly on the back, "but I think before we do anything else you need a few hours of shut eye. You can barely keep your eyes open as it is and if we're going to do this right, you need to be in top shape."

"You're right," nodded Dean and with that he left Rome and Randy to hash out some more ideas while he stumbled to his bedroom and was dead to the world the moment his head hit the pillow.

* * *

><p>The next night, Dean was coming home from his legal work, which was the managing of one of the last soup kitchens in the city that had not been shut down yet when he heard a commotion coming from an alleyway. Knowing from experience that it was better to survey a scene and plan an attack from above, Dean quickly scaled the apartment building that separated the main street from the alley where he was hearing the kerfuffle.<p>

Dean crouched down and gazed down at the scene from above.

Three thugs were attacking a young man around Dean's age. The guy seemed to be holding his own until a powerful blow to the back forced him to his knees and the three goons were able to capitalize. Dean quickly put his hood on to hide his face, he didn't have any of his weapons with him; he would just have to make do. As quietly as he could, Dean scaled down the other side of the building while keeping one eye on the action.

Two of the goons held the struggling man while the other took out a scary looking needle and began to fill it with an unknown substance.

"What's that?" asked the young man clearly scared.

"Medicine," said the thug with a smile, "it'll make you feel so much better," he continued as he advanced towards his victim.

"No…no," protested the young man as he struggled even harder but to no avail. "I don't want it. I'm clean. I'm clean."

"Sorry," grinned the one with the needle as he grabbed the young man's hair and forced his head to one side so that his neck was exposed to him, "I'm afraid you don't have a choice in the matter."

Just before he could insert the needle into the man's neck, Dean grabbed the thug's arm and twisted it sharply, breaking the man's wrist and causing him to drop the needle.

"Sorry to interrupt," said Dean smoothly over the man's howls, "but I'm pretty sure that no means no." The two guys holding the young man let him go and went to attack Dean but they were too slow and no match for the outlaw. Dean quickly dispensed with all of them and sent them running off like a scared pack of hyenas.

Dean turned back to the young man who was frozen in shock on the ground. Dean went up to him and offered a hand, "What's your name?" he asked not unkindly as he helped him to his feet.

"Seth Rollins," said the man as he grimaced slowly and grabbed at his back as he stood up.

"They hurt ya?"

"Not as bad as they could have," said Seth with a small smile to Dean, "thanks, man, I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't shown up when you did."

"Don't mention it," said Dean as he turned to go.

"Wait, man!"

Dean turned back to Seth, his hood still effectively hiding his face.

"You're one of the merry men, aren't you?"

Dean tensed as Seth correctly guessed his affiliation. Seth walked up closer to Dean trying to get a better look at his face but Dean just turned his head and pulled the hood further over his face.

"I've been wanting to join but I haven't been able to find anyone who has direct contact to them. Will you take me to Dean Ambrose? Please? I don't care what kind of tasks you need help with, I'll do them. Even if it means taking out the trash or washing dishes," said Seth enthusiastically.

Dean sighed, he was grateful for about the millionth time that virtually no one knew what Dean Ambrose looked like. It was a closely guarded secret and one that he intended to keep. However, he could always use more men but with this new plan of Cena's he had no time to initiate new members.

"Sorry, man, the boss ain't looking right now for new members. But I'll keep you in mind," said Dean as he tried to wave the guy off of him. But Seth was persistent.

"Please, you won't regret it. I have nothing left to lose. Everything has been taken away from me, my family, my career. I'm sick of lying down. I want to fight back!" finished Seth as he got up in Dean's face.

Dean could see the passion and resolve in Seth's eyes. Part of him wanted to give him a shot. The other part of him screamed at him to just walk away 'he had no time for this'. Dean debated the matter in his head for a few seconds until he came to a decision.

"If you can keep up and follow me back to base, I'll put in a good word for you. But I make no promises," said Dean. Giving Seth no time to speak or think, Dean took off running down the street with Seth following close behind him.

**This is sort of an experimental story for me, let me know what you think.**

**Please give me your honest opinion, don't worry I can take it :)**


	2. Chapter 2

Still Alive

Dean didn't look back as he easily leapt onto a dumpster and jumped from there onto a fire escape using his momentum to swing his body up and over the railing. From there he got to the rooftop quickly enough and then proceeded to run along the rooftops of the row houses going southeast. Today he would take the scenic route back to base.

He knew he was being unfair towards Seth, but he really couldn't handle having a new guy join the Merry Men right now. However, he also couldn't outright reject him when he had declared with such passion why he wanted to join. So, in Dean's mind, he settled on a compromise. He would take Seth through what most of his men deemed the 'impossible route' back to camp. His men called it that because so far only Dean could actually do it. The route was fraught with dangerous jumps and obstacles and only Dean was crazy enough to attempt and succeed at them.

Dean didn't glance back but he could hear Seth's heavy breathing as he still managed to keep up. Dean was already impressed. He hadn't expected him to last this long but he knew that the jump coming up which he termed in his mind, "Satan's Cavity" would stop Seth right in his tracks.

Picking up speed, Dean didn't hesitate as he launched himself from the top of an eight storied building across a gap of about twelve feet and landed about fifteen feet down on the side of a slightly smaller building by grasping the drain pipe of said building. Dean felt the rush of adrenaline like he always did after he accomplished a pretty impressive maneuver and shimmed a few feet up the drainpipe before pulling himself up onto the roof.

Dean now looked back expecting to see a dejected kid staring at the gap and thinking it impossible. However, Dean was surprised to see that Seth was already flying through the air and instead of grasping the drainpipe he had gotten a few more feet than Dean and was able to land on the roof going into an immediate roll so that he was able to keep his momentum going. Seth sprung to his feet and looked at Dean curiously, with a slight grin on his face from Dean's shocked expression, "Why are we stopping? Are we here?"

Dean frowned and shook his head. He needed to kick this up a notch. No more playing nice. "No," he shot back not liking Seth's insinuation that it had been easy, "just giving you a chance to catch up, but don't expect it to happen again," he said as he began to run at full speed along the roof not stopping or even slowing down when the roof turned into a pipe that was only six inches wide that connected the previous building they had been on to the one they needed to get to.

After about a hundred yards or so, the pipe connected to the brick wall of an abandoned steel factory and the only way to go was ten feet straight up to the glass ceiling. Dean ran up the wall with practiced ease and began to bound across the glass roof, careful to avoid stepping on parts of the glass where it was either cracked or brittle from neglect. To his chagrin, Dean still couldn't lose Seth who was hot on his heels.

When Dean reached the end of the glass roof, not missing a beat, he reached down to grasp the black cable whose end was nailed down to the top of the roof. With a graceful leap off the roof, the cable held firmly in one hand, Dean executed a perfect 180-degree turn and repelled quickly down the side of the factory.

When Dean was about 20 feet from the ground, instead of continuing to repel all the way, he pushed hard off the wall and twisted in midair missing the barbed wire 10-foot high fence that separated the abandoned factory from an old car junkyard, which seemed to stretch for miles, by inches. Dean landed hard on the hood of a rusty Chevy, his teeth rattling in his head as his body absorbed the shock and he rolled quite ungracefully to the ground.

Breathing hard, Dean leaned against the broken down Chevy and used it to pull himself to his feet. It was the first time Dean had tried that maneuver and his aching body was screaming in protest at his every move. Raising his eyes, Dean looked to see how Seth was faring. Seth was still hanging onto the cable, at around the same point that Dean was when he went for the jump, looking like he was stuck. Dean grinned to himself. He didn't expect Seth to even attempt that move he had just pulled off. It was practically suicidal…

Dean's jaw almost dropped in shock. Seth got a massive push off of the wall and soared up into the air with his arms outstretched. Blindly he performed a beautiful back flip, cleared the fence by at least a foot and then grasped a metal railing that was stuck solidly between two high columns of crushed, junk cars. Swinging his body several times around the bar like a gymnast, Seth landed gently on the ground.

_That does it!_ Dean thought in his head as he ran into the junkyard determined to lose Seth. Dean tried every trick in the book, running like Cena's goons were chasing him. _Thing is_, Dean thought to himself, _Cena's henchmen never gave me this much trouble_. Dean was so concentrated on getting away from Seth that he forgot to give the signal when approaching the back door of the Merry Men's hideout.

While his men knew him, they didn't know Seth and since Dean had failed to give the 'all clear' signal to his men. To them it looked like their leader was being chased by an unknown threat. It wasn't until Dean heard a rush of feet and a yelp behind him that he stopped and realized his mistake.

His men had Seth trapped in a big net and were roughing him up a bit. Dean sighed. He had failed. Seth had indeed successfully kept up with him all the way to the Merry Men's hideout. And although he really didn't have time to train a newbie, Dean Ambrose was always a man of his word. Not to mention, he was also significantly impressed by Seth's ninja-like abilities.

"STOP!" Dean shouted at Finn, Sami and Adrian who instantly stopped what they were doing and looked at Dean as if he had grown another head.

"But…" began Sami.

"He's a potential newbie," Dean quickly interrupted Sami before he could give away his identity to Seth, "thought Ambrose might want to take a look at him."

The three men caught on to what Dean wanted and nodded as they got the net off of Seth and yanked him to his feet.

"Don't worry," said Dean to Seth as his men bound his hands behind his back and blindfolded his eyes, "this is standard procedure for all newcomers. You'll stay in one of our holding cells until the boss decides what to do with you."

"When will I see Dean Ambrose?" asked Seth as he was being led away by Sami and Finn to the holding area.

"Hard to say for sure," replied Dean, "Dean Ambrose is nothing if not an unpredictable man."

* * *

><p>"Who's that?" asked Little Rome nodding in Seth's direction as he was taken down in the direct opposite tunnel that Dean was heading towards. Dean looked over his shoulder and shrugged as he continued down the tunnel towards the Meeting Room forcing Little Rome to fall into step besides him.<p>

"No one," said Dean nonchalantly, he knew Ro would freak out when he learned that Dean had taken on a newbie. Roman thought that Dean already did way too much and was always lecturing him about the importance of taking care of himself, getting sleep and all other kinds of nonsense, in Dean's humble opinion.

"If he's no one, why are we bothering putting him in a holding cell?" questioned Little Rome as he kept up with Dean's fast pace.

Dean breathed a heavy sigh, "He's just…a potential newbie," Dean finished muttering under his breath hoping that Roman wouldn't understand him and just let the matter drop. Unfortunately for Dean, Little Rome had impeccable hearing.

"A NEWBIE!" Little Rome roared, grabbing Dean's shoulder forcing him to stop and face his now angry friend. "Dean, you can't be serious. We have no time…"

"Stop it," hissed Dean authoritatively as he noticed a couple of his men coming towards them in the tunnel. "In there," he stated gesturing with his head towards a small room off the main tunnel that they usually used for interrogating prisoners. Little Rome agreed with a stiff nod and they both headed in there.

Dean had the door barely closed when Ro continued his rant, "No time for anything remotely like that. How are we going to train him? We've got an entire city to save! We've got no fucking time for this shit!" Roman exclaimed as he pounded his hand on the small table in the room for emphasis.

"He could help us. He's got mad skills, Ro. He might be even better than me," said Dean trying to remain calm as he explained himself to his best friend.

"I don't care how good he is," burst out Little Rome, "there are lives at stake here!"

"You think I don't fucking know that!" yelled Dean getting in Little Rome's face. "You think I don't fucking know! What do you think I'm fucking doing all the fucking day?!"

"Working too fucking hard!" shouted Little Rome back at Dean as he shoved Dean away from him a bit. "We need you, man. We need you at your best and how do you plan on doing that while you are busy with a newbie?"

"I don't know, okay," said Dean defensively, "but maybe we could use him. I stopped some of Cena's goons from pumping his veins full of that exact poison we are trying to save the city from. Maybe he could tell us something that we don't know?"

"It's too big of a risk!" declared Little Rome shaking his head. "First Randy brings in someone new and now you!"

"Wait…what?" asked Dean giving Ro a puzzled look, "I didn't okay that."

"Well he said that you would understand and that we needed him for our next attack," said Little Rome gesturing helplessly, "they're talking in the kitchen as we speak. Randy is getting him something to eat."

"Since when do we let visitors just walk around without letting me approve it first," growled Dean as he furiously pulled the door open and walked purposefully towards the kitchens.

"Since now," said Little Rome under his breath as he ran frustrated fingers through his hair and followed his crazy leader out of the room.

* * *

><p>Sheriff Kane was out of breath as he walked into Mayor Cena's office and gulped as the mayor's eyes were on him as soon as he opened the door.<p>

"Status report," demanded the mayor as Sheriff Kane walked a little further into the room.

"Yes…um yes," said the sheriff fumbling over his words, "well, it appears that all went according to plan. The kid seems to be in."

"The key word in that sentence that troubles me," said Mayor Cena slowly as he got up from his desk and straightened his suit jacket, "is 'seems'. Do you actually know anything, sheriff? Do you have anything of substance to actually report to me? Or are you truly useless?"

"Yes! I mean no," said Sheriff Kane hurriedly, "I mean it's too early to say exactly. Until the boy checks in, which won't be for a few days, we won't know much."

"I don't like that, sheriff," snarled the mayor as he stepped threateningly towards the sheriff, "I don't like that at all."

"Well you've waited this long to catch Dean Ambrose," said the sheriff desperate to deflect the mayor's anger off of him, "what's another couple of days?"

"It better be just a few days," snapped Mayor Cena, "I want Dean Ambrose delivered to me on a silver platter before the benefit."

"That doesn't give us much time," the sheriff protested.

"Do it!" shouted the mayor back at the sheriff, "or otherwise I'll find myself someone who can get it done. I'm starting to doubt whether you're the right man for the job, sheriff."

"I am."

"Then prove it," sneered the mayor as he turned back to his desk and waved him away dismissively, "I'm done with you. Get out of my sight."

The mayor rubbed a hand over his eyes as he blew out a breath of frustration. That little shit, Dean Ambrose had plagued him for so long that he couldn't wait to get his hands on him. He would not only hurt Ambrose but also humiliate him just as he had done to him for the past five fucking years.

**As you can see, I've decided to continue with this story.**

**I would love it if you would tell me how you felt about this chapter. Love, hate, or not sure let me know :)**


	3. Chapter 3

Still Alive

Dean burst into the kitchen with a wild look in his eyes, glancing furiously around the massive room. Because of the late hour, the kitchen wasn't that crowded at all and it took Dean all of two seconds to locate the man he was searching for. Randy.

There he was. Standing at one of the long tables preparing some kind of food and joking with Dolph, another one of the Merry Men.

"Randal Scarlett!" shouted Dean as he made his way over to Randy. The whole room grew instantly silent and everybody stared wide-eyed as Dean stalked up to Randy who in turn straightened up to face his leader with a slightly puzzled look on his face. Dean Ambrose, for all his nervous energy, was a fairly calm man but every once in a while something would happen which would cause him to lose his cool. And his men knew that when Dean lost his cool, he did so in spectacular fashion.

Dean stepped right up into Randy's personal space, taking a few, long seconds to give him a hard stare before speaking again. "Little Rome just informed me that you have let someone just waltz in here without following the proper precautions! You better have a damn good reason for this otherwise you have just put a whole lot of people in great, fucking danger!"

"You know…for being the city's most wanted outlaw, you sure do seem to care a little too much about the rules," spoke up a sarcastic voice from behind Dean. Dean's rage melted away as he heard that voice and turned around to face his oldest friend who was leaning against the doorway that led to the pantry and smirking at him.

Dean grinned. "Punk…how, what…what the hell are you wearing?" Punk's face and hair was all that was recognizable to Dean, instead of his usual clothes, Punk was wearing to what looked to Dean like a grey robe with a hood, and a rough leather belt around his waist. He had sandals on his feet and was that a rosary hanging from his belt? Dean thought. Punk's smirk grew wider at Dean's obvious confusion at his chosen attire.

"That's Friar Punk, to you Dean," stated Punk as he barked out a laugh as Dean's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets in shock. "It's my cover for right now," elaborated Punk when he had finished laughing. Dean nodded in head in acceptance of Punk's explanation. CM Punk was a world class smuggler and self-proclaimed Best in the World con artist. Dean turned back to Randy who was grinning sheepishly at him and patted him on the back with a muttered apology. Randy was right to bring in Punk, the Merry Men could definitely use a man of his talents.

"Come here you asshole," said Dean pulling Punk in for a rough hug despite the man's protests. Punk didn't normally do hugs but too bad, thought Dean; it had been way too long since he has seen his friend.

"So, you're okay with this, Dean?" asked Roman incredulously.

Dean sighed. Now it all made sense. Randy had been with Dean's crew longer than Little Rome and remembered Punk from back in the day. Roman had never had the pleasure of meeting Punk until now.

"Yes, Ro," said Dean gesturing to Punk, "this is perhaps my oldest friend, CM Punk…"

"Friar Punk," interjected Punk.

"Sorry," said Dean rolling his eyes, "and Friar Punk this is Little Rome."

"I can see why they call you that," deadpanned Punk holding out a hand to Roman.

Roman gazed at Punk's hand for a moment before shaking it, "Thanks, I can't say the same about you though," retorted Roman.

"Nobody can. That's why I'm so good at what I do," shot back Punk as the two men released each other's hands.

"Okay, girls, that's enough," said Dean coming in between the two men, "the room isn't big enough to handle both of your egos and quite frankly I have no patience for it. Ro, we need Punk, so back the hell off. And Punk, you should know better than to antagonize someone bigger than you and while you are my oldest friend, Roman is one of my best friends so I suggest the two of you learn how to coexist," snapped Dean as he scooped some food off the table and headed out of the kitchen.

"Where are you going? I thought you wanted to plan out our next attack?" shouted Randy after Dean.

Dean turned around while still walking backwards, "We will. You guys get started. I'll meet up with you after I give some food to the newbie."

"Wait…you're taking on a newbie?! Now?!" shouted Randy in disbelief, looking to Little Rome who threw his hands up in the air at the entire situation.

"Yes, Randy," stated Dean with a crazy smile, "Yes I am."

* * *

><p>"Hey, Sami," greeted Dean as he walked up, "How's the newbie? Anything to report," asked Dean dropping his voice to a low whisper. The door to the room was thick, solid oak but Dean didn't want to take any chances of being overheard by Seth. While Dean's gut instinct was to trust Seth, one could never be too careful.<p>

A few years ago, Little Rome had suggested a new policy for initiating new members into the Merry Men. At first, Dean had scoffed at the idea and had called it way too theatrical for his tastes but after Little Rome had persuaded him to give it a trial run, Dean had to admit it was a pretty good way of testing a man's loyalty, strength of character and will to join the Merry Men. This method had weeded out more than a few would-be-spies, thrill seekers, and boys who had yet to become men. Plus this method ensured that as few people as possible knew who Dean Ambrose was.

"Nah," said Sami stifling a yawn, "He's been silent in there. He's made no fuss for us and hasn't requested a thing, not even food or water."

"And you've made sure that he has no idea…" Dean trailed off. He didn't even have to say it. Sami would understand what he was asking.

"Oh, yeah, everyone has followed protocol. He has no clue who you are," assured Sami, "Will you be going with the old standby for the time being?"

"Yes, for a little while," said Dean, "Take a break, Sami and before you go to bed. If you could just spread the word that if anyone sees me with the newbie they are to address me as 'Moxley' or 'Mox' that would be a big help."

"Sure thing, Mox," grinned Sami as he started to make his way down the tunnel.

"Good man," said Dean grinning to himself as he unlocked the heavy door and gently pushed it open.

The room Seth was staying in for the time being was not a jail cell. Dean saw no reason that the newbies had to be kept in discomfort until trust was established.

The room was comfortable and of modest size. There was a bed in the corner that was equipped with quilts and pillows. A small bookshelf was situated in the opposite corner, which housed a variety of about fifty or so books. A desk with drawers that had implements for writing or drawing if one desired to do so. A closet was full of extra towels, linens and quilts if it was needed and a full, private bathroom was directly attached to the room. Dean was so grateful that some of the Merry Men were engineers and plumbers who were able to equip and maintain the hideout with running water and indoor plumbing.

Seth looked up from the book he was reading as Dean walked in. Dean observed that Seth looked freshly showered and was looking right at home lounging on the bed with a book in hand.

"How are you doing?" asked Dean as he shut the door behind him and placed a plate of sandwiches along with a few oranges that he had swiped from the kitchen and a bottle of water onto the desk.

"Alright," replied Seth as he headed straight for the plate of food and dug in.

"I figured you might be hungry, especially after our little run," said Dean as he sat down on a chair. Seth gestured a thanks, his mouth to full to speak and brought the plate with him as he sat down on the bed again.

"So I suppose you have some questions," began Dean, "I can't promise that I can answer all of them but hopefully I can answer some."

"Where am I?" asked Seth.

"You are in the Merry Men's hideout somewhere in Sherwood's Junkyard. The exact details of where the hideout is and the entrances and exits will be revealed if the boss decides to trust you," explained Dean.

"Sherwood's Junkyard. That's smart. It's the largest junkyard in the city and goes on for miles, you could get lost in it. And by boss, I assume you mean Dean Ambrose?" asked Seth for clarification.

"Yep," Dean said nodding his head up and down. This part of the process was always weird for Dean, having to pretend that he wasn't himself.

"Can you tell me your name?" asked Seth. "It seems only fair, since you know mine."

"I'm Moxley," said Dean smoothly, "but everyone calls me, Mox."

"Thanks, Mox, for the food," said Seth as he smiled at Dean, "and thanks for giving me a chance to prove myself."

"To be honest, I wasn't expecting you to be able to follow me all the way," said Dean, "how'd you learn to run like that?"

Seth shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. Living in this city, running away from bullies and thugs. Plus I'm a bit of a daredevil," finished Seth with a goofy grin.

"I can definitely see that," said Dean wryly as he remembered Seth completing that back flip over the barbed wire fence.

"Yeah, I gave my poor mother a few heart attacks over the years," said Seth with a laugh, "she always kept telling me to stop climbing the roof of our house but I would always find some way to climb it and eventually she gave up trying to stop me from going up there and would just yell up to me to be careful."

"She sounds like a lovely woman," said Dean politely.

"She was," replied Seth softly as he looked away, his face turning sad and distant for a moment.

"So," said Seth shaking his head, after a beat, as if that motion could remove the bad memories from his mind, "Am I sort of on probation or what?"

"You're a newbie," said Dean, "that means until Dean decides that you are trustworthy, you are not allowed to wander around the hideout. If you do go outside this room you must always be escorted by someone and I don't think I need to warn you that should you try to get away from your escort and walk around unaccompanied you will not be allowed to become one of the Merry Men. You are not allowed to attend meetings or gatherings unless invited and you most certainly will not be going on any mission unless your skills are absolutely needed."

Seth nodded taking in all the stipulations, "Sounds fair. When will I get to speak with Dean Ambrose?"

"You won't meet Dean unless you become one of us," said Dean spreading his hands in a gesture as if to say I'm sorry but the matter is out of my hands.

"How will he determine that I'm trustworthy if he's never met me?" asked Seth a little indignantly.

"He has his ways," said Dean.

Seth took another bite of a sandwich and regarded Dean as he chewed. "Are you his right hand man? You seem to have a lot of responsibility around here."

"No," said Dean shaking his head, "I've been with the gang since the beginning though, so Dean values my opinion."

"Moxley," said Seth slowly, "No last name?"

"No need, I'm an orphan from birth, I never knew my parents," explained Dean which was actually true. Dean found it helped that when he fibbed like this that he would pepper his lies with some actual truths, which made the lies much more convincing.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It happened a long time ago," said Dean nonchalantly shrugging his shoulders as he stood up. "Well I need to get going. Will you be all right for tonight? Is there anything that you need?" asked Dean as he headed for the door.

"No, I'm fine," said Seth looking a bit concerned, "I'm sorry, I hope I didn't offend you."

Dean turned back to Seth and gave him a reassuring smile, "You didn't. I just really need to go. But I will see you in the morning. I get the lucky job of escorting your ass around," finished Dean a light tone in his voice to let Seth know that he didn't really mind escorting him around at all.

Seth returned the smile. "Okay, thanks again Mox. See ya later."

**So that's what I have for now :) Please review, thanks a bunch!**


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